1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a computer input system, and more particularly to an automatic system of generating an icon displayed on the computer's display screen and selected by a user.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the recent increasing use of computers and the improvement in their display performance, a visionary method of comprehensively displaying the information necessary to use the computer, such as computing modes and operating instructions or menus, is sought. One such method uses an icon which is displayed as a pictorial character on a screen. This icon is selected by a user's mouse, and is used in lieu of a more traditional command input.
Kinds of icons used include a device icon that represents an operation related to an input or an output, an icon that represents data related to a file or text, an action icon that represents transfer and copy, and a status icon that represents mail is in a sending or receiving status. In existing computers, predetermined icons are stored in a memory device, read out as necessary, and displayed on a display screen in a fixed pattern according to a predetermined display sequence.
However, the numbers of commands, parameters and statuses for operating a computer increase with its functional improvement. Furthermore, if a computer's operating procedures become more complex, a small number of icons with a fixed graphic pattern cannot properly give the necessary information to a user. Hence, a large number of icons need to be provided. The design of such icons depends on manual labor, which necessitates much work and time. Also, a problem arises in that the necessary area of a memory device for storing a large number of icons becomes huge.
Another problem is that, when all designed icons are displayed on a computer display screen, they occupy too much of the display area. This confuses the user because icons not ordinarily used or those only infrequently used are also displayed.